You’ve now repeated some version of this several times: that Democrats should not bother with right-leaning working-class voters specifically because they are too far gone; too bigoted, too irrational, too addicted to comforting lies. You hedge it with phrases like “shouldn’t give them special outreach” or “don’t exclude anyone at a philosophical level,” but the logic is clear: if someone doesn’t already fit within the moral parameters of the current Democratic coalition, they’re not worth investing in. That’s a strategy, whether you own it or not.
I think that’s a dangerous misread of where this country is politically and emotionally. Not because bigotry doesn’t exist, it obviously does, but because the real dividing line isn’t between “good people” and “bad people,” it’s between those who still feel seen by any political party and those who don’t. You’ve turned disconnection into a diagnosis of moral failure. But that gets it backwards. People don’t disconnect because they’re immoral. They disconnect because they no longer believe anyone in power gives a damn about them. And in that vacuum, yes, lies and scapegoating thrive.
The question is whether we leave that vacuum in place, or whether we offer something more powerful and real to take its place.
You say we should offer policies that improve people’s lives, good. I agree. But you then insist we shouldn’t reach out in ways that might actually persuade those people to believe that Democrats have their back. That’s a contradiction. Policies don’t sell themselves. People need to feel that the person offering help is on their side. That’s the basis of emotional trust, and, in politics, that trust is forged through stories, symbolism, presence, and yes, affective connection.
This goes deeper than one election cycle or one personality. The Democratic Party used to be the party of working people. Black and white, rural and urban, union and unemployed. It had its faults, but it spoke to people where they lived. It offered them a story about their lives that made sense. That connection has frayed, not just among the white working class, but among working people in general. If we don’t reckon with that loss and fight to rebuild it, then the only people left in the room will be the already converted, talking to each other while the country burns.
If the right can tell people a lie that feels emotionally true, the left has to learn to tell the truth in a way that feels just as powerful. Otherwise, we’re not serious about winning nor change.
